Monday, March 5, 2012

Just the weekend before Valentine's Day, I was asked to host a cooking demonstration with Chef Peter Neo for Chong Pang CC for the People's Association for their Culinary Interest Group.

It was to be both a cooking demo plus serving the attendees with a 3 course Italian meal, which was quite a feat indeed.

Nevertheless, it was also a delight to be able to share the stage with our charming and masterful Peter Neo, who enthralled the audience with his cooking abilities as he whipped up a selection of classic Italian fare.

It started with a recipe on cooking classic minestrone soup, which really went down well with the folks there.

It was followed by the classic spaghetti vongole and finally finished with an interesting orange panna cotta dessert.

I must say, the audience was both enthusiastic and curious as Italian fare was not something they usually do at home, and for many, it was really a first of sorts.

Peter enrapturing the audience

The occasion was also filmed by a crew from PA and in fact, the audience was actually made up of grassroots leaders from the interest group.

Their task was to learn and cull from chefs like Peter and then teach their own communities what they learn here.

On our part, we had to prepare food for about 100 persons in the audience, and that itself required quite a bit of planning days ahead of the event. I have to thank Damien Low and his guys from Ice Edge Cafe who helped out quite a bit for their effort.

It was worth it though, as the food was very warmly received by everyone and there were so many questions and interested folks who simply wanted to know more about Italian and western cooking.

If anyone reading this is keen for such demos, do contact me as Chef Peter and myself look forward to doing more of such demos in the future!